So, I have tried remaking a heart confetti like texture several times now (I want to layer tiny hearts over parts of ground texture) , and no matter what I try it doesn't look right in the program.
The background in GIMP looks completely transparent (I've even done new files with transparency specifically set for the background), the preview of the alpha map looks like it should be correct, but they look like this?




I've seen in older posts references to an old tutorial or base but I cannot seem to find this, if anyone has it I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm going to leave this alpha issue to @Simsample, but do you really need it to be transparent? As CAW layers textures, have you tried making grass with hearts on top ready to apply?

Thanks @Volvenom It's been a while since I did these though!

What is your bit depth for each channel? The transparent pebbles I made look like this:

I have to admit I have never edited alpha channels before and I do not know how to answer the question.


I'd prefer to have a transparent one just so I didn't have to make several different textures, but if I can't get it to work I will do this for sure.

In Gimp, click Image>Precision as I have in the image above and take a look. I think they need to be 32bit, so 8 per channel.

It is set to 8.

Which DXT compression are you using?

DXT5

well now I'm baffled...
Could you upload the file? I could at least look at it to see if I can see anything... In the meantime, if anyone has any ideas please help me!

Here you go, thank you for taking a look!

@LemonyLin I can't see a file, could you send a link maybe?

My bad! Must not have hit the keys hard enough to paste.
Here it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IY...iew?usp=sharing

Uh-oh...

Terribly sorry for that, seems google drive has changed a little bit and I just didn't notice.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IY...iew?usp=sharing

Okay I have that! Gimme a while, I need to load things up.

Hey @LemonyLin
I took a look at it, and I think I see what the problem is.
The DDS is correct, the alpha works and all is well with that.

But, I think the settings in Create-a-world are incorrect. Take a look at my image:

The diamond stone texture has an alpha, the image has a grass background but the grass bit is alpha'd out. So, if I use that texture with a brush that has opacity 100, the grass bit shows up. But, if I reduce the opacity right down, you see that on the sandy areas you cannnot see the grass background, just the diamond stones.
The same with your hearts- if I use a brush with opacity 100, the black background shows up. If I reduce the opacity right down to 19 or so, the background doesn't show and I just see hearts. You can see an area where I used opacity 100 and the black is visible.

So play around with the brush parameters and see what you can do. You might want to change the background of your hearts to something that matches your terrain, if you want to have areas of full opacity- make it grass or sand or stone according to which texture dominates your world. I always have individual layer mode ticked when I paint in CAW for reasons explained in this thread-
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=430231
So you can experiment with that too, as painting works slightly differently with that ticked.

I hope this helps!

You are such a life saver! I also have never use the individual layer section before, so I learned something new too! Thank you again so very much!
After playing with the setting if I lower the color even just to 200 the black disappears complete! Thank you!

Oh good, glad I was of some use!
Have fun, I like the heart texture very much!

Thank you! The heart is a stock image, I'm hoping to refine the idea now that this hiccup is figured out.
Same to you!